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AUTHOR: 


THE  CENTURY 
COMPANY 


JL  M.  A  £.^.£2^  m 


PLAIN  WORDS  ON 
IMPORTANT  TOPICS 


PLACE: 


NEW  YORK 


DA  ft 


1910 


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The  Century  company. 

Plain  words  on  important  topicstrhfmicrof  orm  ] .  JrbRecent  articles  in  the 
Century  magazine  on  strike  violence,  general  lawlessness,  yellow  journal 
ism  and  bad  manners. 

New  York,|bThe  Century  Co.,{:cl910. 

31  p. , vC24  cm. 

OCLC 

12-06-91 


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MRNUrnCTURED   TO   fillM   STRNDfiRDS 
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Plain  Words 


on 


Important  Topics 


Recent 

Editorial  Articles 


m 


The  Century  Magazine 


on 


Strike  Violence 

General  Lawlessness 

Yellow  Journalism 

and 

Bad  Manners 


[December,  1910] 

THE  CENTURY  CO. 

NEW    YORK 


TRUE  AND   FALSE   SYMPATHY   IN   STRIKES 


5  x;«^  ^ 


npHERE  have  been  extraordinary  strikes  out  of  sym- 
•*-  pathy,  but  for  outside  sympathy  with  a  strike  we  have 
seen  nothing  quite  like  the  demonstrations  and  efforts  in 
connection  with  the  girl  shirtwaist- makers  in  New  York. 
Social  extremes  embraced  each  other.  Great  ladies  con- 
sorted and  conferred  with  working-women.  The  em- 
ployers had  to  face  daily  protests  from  a  sex  in  arms.  The 
whole  was  a  remarkable  manifestation  of  what  Mrs.  Ward 
has  called  the  peculiarly  modern  sense  of  ^'social  compunc- 
tion." By  this  is  meant  the  intense  feeling  of  the  more 
fortunate  classes  that  they  owe  much  to  the  others,  and 
should  be  swift  to  aid  them  in  emergencies,  and  labor  to 
improve  their  lot,  even  if  not  certain  what  methods  ought 
to  be  chosen,  or  what  the  actual  results  will  be.  For  call- 
ing out  such  a  flood  of  this  kind  of  sympathy,  which  broke 
through  class-lines,  though  it  ran  up  and  down  the  line  of 
common  womanhood,  the  shirtwaist  strike  set  a  new  mark. 
It  is,  however,  precisely  when  such  an  emotional  element 
is  imparted  into  labor  troubles  that  it  is  most  a  duty, 
though  confessedly  most  difficult,  for  earnest  but  sober- 
minded  men  and  women  to  make  sure  that  their  sympathy 
flows  to  the  right  persons  and  causes,  and  to  look  before 
and  after  in  the  whole  matter  of  intervention.  One  should 
be  fully  informed  in  the  rights  and  wrongs  of  the  case,  and 
sure  that  in  endeavoring  to  help  some  we  are  not  hurting 
others.  If  our  struggles  for  social  amelioriation  are  not  to 
be  blind  and  unavailing,  if  we  hope  to  make  civilization 
advance  solidly  and  in  good  order,  we  must  question  not 
motives,  but  acts ;  must  trace  rights  to  their  foundation 
and  effects  to  their  causes. 

The  crux  of  the  shirtwaist-makers'  strike  was  that  old 
one— "recognition  of  the  union."  Virtually  every  substan- 
tial demand  except  that  the  employers  were  early  ready  to 


concede.      Wages,    hours,    sanitary   conditions— all   these 
could  speedily  have    been    fixed    to   the  mind  of  the  deter- 
mined young   women ;    but    with    a   resolution    which  was 
heroic,  even  if  mistaken,  they  held  out  for  the  closed  shop. 
Of  course  they  did  not  call  it  the  closed  shop.     What  they 
thrust  to  the  Iront  was  the  need  of  collective  bargaining. 
And  they  made  out  a  good  argument  for  its  application  in 
their  own  work.     As  their  pay  is  fixed  by  the  piece,  and  as 
continually    changing    fashion    makes    the    definition    of   a 
'Apiece"— say,  a  cuff  or   sleeve -as  inconstant  as  the  moon, 
there  was  a  peculiar  reason,  they  urged,  lor  a  representa- 
tive body    to    agree    with    the    foremen    upon    the  basis  of 
wages.     Otherwise,  these   might  fluctuate  intolerably.     It 
would  be  hard  for  the  most  inveterate  critic  of  labor-unions 
to  deny  that  here  at  least  was  a  case  where  an  organization 
among  the  workers  might   be  a   good  thing  both  for  them 
and  for  the  manufacturers.      Instead  of  having  to  deal  with 
15,000  individuals  separately,  it  would  be  possible  to  settle 
everything  for  all  with  an  authorized  committee. 

Very  good;  but,  unhappily,  the  matter  did  not  stop 
there.  The  strikers  and  their  influential  friends  and 
helpers  passed  on  speedily  to  the  position  that  the  work 
should  be  done  by  nobody  else;  that  they  had  a  vested 
right  to  the  employment.  Others  seeking  it  were  to  be 
kept  from  getting  it,  first,  by  persuasion ;  second,  by 
denunciation  as  *'  scabs  "  and  enemies  to  their  class;  finally, 
by  methods  trenching  on  intimidation  and  violence.  So  it 
happened  that  this  unprecedented  strike  by  working-girls, 
unprecedentedly  supported  as  it  was  by  some  ol  the 
wealthiest  women  of  New  York,  soon  took  on  much  ot  the 
spirit  which  has  made  many  labor  wars  really  synonymous 
with  attacks  on  the  liberty  of  the  individual  and  on  the 
right  to  work  as  the  worker  may  freely  contract. 

From  the  facts  of  this  unusual  and  most  noteworthy 
strike  a  clear  direction  emerges  to  those  in  doubt  where 
their  sympathies  should  fall  in  any  large  industrial  disturb- 
ance.     We  need  never  stint  our  admiration  of  honest  work- 


ers striving  to  better  themselves.  To  seek  to  make  labor 
valuable,  or  to  demand  as  high  a  price  for  it  as  can  be  got, 
is  both  lawful  and  commendable.  Moreover,  when  they 
make  sacrifices  for  one  another,  or  in  behalf  of  their  whole 
group,  they  deserve  praise  and  encouragement ;  if  they  are 
clearly  fighting  against  injustice  or  oppression,  they  may 
rightfully  appeal  for  aid  as  well  as  applause.  But  they 
must  not  in  the  act  create  other  classes  more  in  need  oi 
sympathy  than  themselves.  They  must  not  go  about  to 
rob  even  their  employers  of  freedom  and  self-respect. 
They  cannot  without  a  protest  be  permitted  to  dictate 
terms  of  employment  so  onerous  to  capital  that  it  will  take 
to  itself  wings  and  leave  even  less  work  to  be  divided 
among  willing  and  empty  hands.  Nor  must  they,  in 
forbidding  others  to  labor,  turn  oppressors  and  monopolists 
themselves.  When  a  strike  goes  such  lengths  as  to  be  a 
bl(^w  at  industrial  freedom  and  the  rights  of  human  nature 
itself,  sympathy  with  it  is  as  much  misplaced  as  it  would  be 
with  any  other  form  of  social  mischief  or  personal  cruelty. 
With  every  aspiration  of  organized  labor  we  are  bound  to 
sympathize  except  its  aspiration  to  become  a  tyrant.  Sym- 
pathy that  shuts  its  eyes  to  clear  distinctions  of  law  and 
morals  may  argue  a  kind  heart,  but  is  utterly  inconsistent 
with  either  straight  thinking  or  a  firm  and  convinced  sense 
of  public  duty. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  line  of  defense  against 
anarchy  is  the  right  to  work  for  wages  upon  which 
employer  and  workman  are  agreed,  and  that  the  moment 
our  sympathy  crosses  this  line  it  becomes  the  insidious 
teacher  of  lawlessness  and  injustice.  Procedure  based  on 
any  other  principle  is  merely  plaving  with  fire. 

A  BLOW  TO  THE  BOYCOTT 


IT  was  inevitable  in  a  country  like  ours,  where  the  tradi- 
tion "live  and  let  live"  is  still  vital,  that  the  boycott  by 
violence  should  ultimately  break  of  its  own  weight  and  that 


its  legal  abolition  should  follow;  but  it  would  have  been  a 
rash  prophet  who  should  have  predicted  that  this  would  be 
promoted  by  the  Sherman  Anti-Trust  Law.  Yet  it  is  this 
statute,  rather  than  the  remedies  of  common  law,  which  has 
been  invoked  to  abolish  an  intolerable  state  of  commercial 
anarchy.  This  act  provided  that  forcible  interference  with 
interstate  traffic  in  any  article  of  commerce  shall  be  subject 
to  damages  against  those  so  interfering  to  an  amount  equal 
to  three  times  the  loss  incurred.  The  illegality  of  boycot- 
ting had  been  declared  by  many  decisions  in  England  and 
America,  but  now  the  principle  has  been  applied  through 
an  additional  and  most  effective  remedy.  The  verdict  of 
large  damages  against  the  individual  members  of  the  union 
which  carried  on  the  boycott  of  the  Danbury  hat-makers 
in  1902-3,  carries  with  it  a  new  defense  not  only  of  every 
employer  engaged  in  interstate  commerce,  but  also  of  the 
laborer  himself— and  not  only  the  laborer  willing  to  work 
when  others  are  not,  but,  in  the  long  run,  of  the  very  man 
who  has  been  most  determined  in  the  use  of  the  boycott. 
For  '*  a  good  principle  works  well  in  all  directions,"  and  in 
every  advance  along  the  path  of  justice  there  is  a  victory 
of  the  vanquished. 

The  legitimate  aspirations  of  trade-unions  are  entitled  to 
sympathy  and  respect.  Their  right  to  combine  peaceably 
for  the  improvement  of  the  conditions  of  laborers  or  for  the 
advance  of  their  wages  is  no  longer  denied,  and  where  they 
have  stimulated  the  self-respect  and  dignity  of  the  working- 
man,  making  him  scorn  to  be  regarded  as  an  object  of  pity 
or  charity,  and  where  they  have  exposed  shameful  selfish- 
ness in  grinding  employers,  they  are  to  be  heartily  com- 
mended. There  is  already  among  their  members  marked 
restiveness  under  certain  unfortunate  leadership  which  has 
failed  to  discountenance  violence  and  has  not  hesitated  to 
defy  the  courts,  thus  alienating  a  body  of  philanthropic 
public  opinion  which  has  sympathized  with  all  movements 
to  improve  the  condition  of  the  laboring  man.  Some  of 
the  unions,  such  as  the  Brotherhood  of  Locomotive  Engi- 


neers, have  been  well  and  wisely  led,  and  the  time  would 
seem  to  be  ripe  for  a  national  leader  of  courage  and  ability 
who  shall  turn  the  forces  of  organized  labor  into  more  con- 
servative channels,  and,  particularly,  shall  preach  the  long- 
forgotten  and  much-needed  gospel  of  good  work. 

LAWLESSNESS  THE  NATIONAL  VICE 

TH  ESE  are  days  of  rude  awakening  for  those  Americans 
who  have  been  reared  on  the  old  Fourth-of-July  theory 
that  **  freedom  "  and  "  education  **  keep  a  people  in  the  way 
of  moral,  social,  and  political  advancement, — in  other  words, 
that  an  enlightened  and  vigorous  people,  with  free  play 
given  to  its  better  instincts,  is  sure  to  develop  a  society 
that  steadily  intrenches  itself  in  law  and  order. 

A  nation  which  has  reached  the  ninety-million  mark  in 
population  without  a  uniform  standard  of  public  sentiment 
in  regard  to  the  enforcement  of  law  is  surely  at  the  mercy 
of  its  selfish  passions,  rather  than  under  the  control  of  its 
reason  and  its  statutory  wisdom.  In  the  last  twelve  months 
every  variety  of  lawlessness  known  to  man, — private  and 
official,  labor  and  corporate,  family  and  social, —has  been 
on  view,  in  a  degree  of  extreme  development.  And  although 
these  many  crying  instances  were  not  evenly  distributed 
over  the  country,  similar  events,  differently  placed  in  other 
years,  remind  us  that  no  particular  region  has  a  monoply  of 
lawlessness,  or  is  wholly  immune.  Even  when  it  is  startled 
into  an  expression  of  abhorrence,  the  public  is  seldom 
aroused  to  united  and  persistent  action  ;  yet  everybody 
realizes  that  all  these  various  fioutings  of  the  law  are  not 
merely  special  outbreaks;  they  are  also  symptoms  of  national 
influences  which  impel  hundreds  of  men  of  intelligence  and 
force,  as  well  as  thousands  less  favored  by  endowment  and 
circumstance,  to  use  lawless  means  for  the  attainment  of 
selfish  ends. 

The  cure  for  all  these  kinds  of  abuse  of  law  and  for  the 
general  indifference  to  the   enforcement  of   law,    must   be 


found  in  the  causes  which  produce  them.  A  large  part  ol 
the  public  is  content  to  leave  the  work  of  correction  to  the 
newspaper  press,  which  in  the  large,  and  especially  in  its 
local  responsibility,  vigorously  and  manfully  upholds  the 
law  ;  but  it  cannot  be  said  that  the  reading  of  newspapers 
is  a  substitute  for  good  citizenship.  On  the  other  hand, 
many  of  the  widely  popular  newspapers,  in  their  zeal  to 
make  business  while  they  are  unmaking  reputations,  serve 
up  the  news  of  labor  disturbances,  college  brawls,  and  social 
delinqencies,  with  picturesque  flippancy  and  racy  heartless- 
ness;  while  the  out-and-out  sensational  press,  which  gets 
nearest  to  the  pockets  and  predjudices  of  the  masses,  openly 
cultivates  class  unrest,  mob  remedies,  and,  on  occasion,  per- 
sonal violence.  Not  content  with  an  unhealthy  spread  of  the 
vices  and  crimes  of  the  day,  they  fill  their  **  entertainment '* 
columns  with  thrilling  or  engaging  accounts  of  distinguished 
prize-fighters,  murderers,  thieves,  and  social  and  political 
delinquents  of  other  days.  As  this  variety  of  newspaper 
makes  the  strongest  appeal  to  the  largest  number,  it  must 
be  questioned  whether  the  influence  of  the  rest  of  the  press 
on  the  side  of  observance  of  the  law  equals  the  power  of  this 
fraction  to  cultivate  indifference,  or  to  teach  lawlessness 
and  crime  by  suggestion.  This  influence  in  the  nation  is 
profound,  and  unrestrained  save  by  the  varying  whims  of 
the  sensation-mongers  who  exploit  the  press  for  personal 
profit  and  ambition.  It  is  an  influence  still  rather  new  to 
human  experience,  and  the  helplessness  of  individuals  and 
society  in  opposition  to  it  should  be  regarded  as  the 
most  discouraging  sign  of  a  wide-spread  indifference  to 
lawlessness. 

Many  observers  refer  the  turbulent  phases  of  American 
lawlessness  mainly  to  the  enormous  influx  of  foreigners 
during  the  last  twenty- five  years.  Coming  largely  from 
countries  where  the  restive  masses  are  awed  into  quietude 
by  military  force,  these  beginners  in  the  school  of ''  freedom" 
are  prone  to  interpret  the  public  inertia  in  regard  to  minor 
lawlessness  as  a  general    license   to   fall  in    with    current 

8 


methods  of  redressing  any  grievance  ;  and  then,  on  encoun- 
tering police  interference  more  arbitrary  than  is  usual  in 
Europe,  where  the  military  is  an  overawing  reserve  force, 
they  develop  a  distaste  for  republican  restraint  which 
impels  to  extreme  violence.  But  the  acts  of  foreign-born 
strikers,  and  even  of  the  "  black  hand  "  conspirators  who 
prey  on  their  own  countrymen,  are  of  no  lasting  significance 
except  as  these  classes  may  raise  up  children  especially 
inclined  by  nature  and  training  to  swell  the  ranks  of 
indifference. 

In  the  last  analysis,  the  responsibility  for  the  lax  public 
sentiment  with  regard  to  violations  of  business,  social  and 
political  laws,  must  be  placed  on  American  training  and 
character.  Since  the  Civil  War,  at  least,  the  youth  of  the 
nation  has  been  allowed  a  latitude  of  conduct  and  self- 
indulgence  invited  by  political  security  and  expanding 
prosperity.  Himself  confident  and  resourceful,  the  average 
American  father  has  been  pleased  to  accord  to  his  son  a 
large  freedom  for  the  development  of  individual  quality; 
and  when  he  has  had  misgivings  as  to  the  tendencies  of  his 
children,  he  has  usually  been  too  busy  with  the  material 
cares  of  our  strenuous  style  of  living  to  do  more  than 
admonish,  or  to  delegate  the  duties  of  parenthood.  Striking 
exceptions  only  emphasize  the  common  neglect,  and  if  any 
one  doubts  the  truth  of  this  sweeping  generalization,  let 
him  inquire  of  the  masters  of  the  private  schools  of  the 
country.  They  will  tell  him,  without  qualification,  that  the 
lack  of  training  in  obedience  and  self-restraint  in  American 
homes  is  the  bane  of  the  preparatory  schools,  and  the  direct 
cause  of  the  prevalent  mediocre  levels  of  discipline  and 
scholarship. 

Without  doubt  the  children  of  the  public  schools  receive 
a  discipline  which  more  nearly  compensates  for  the  lack  of 
proper  home  training,  but  there,  as  everywhere  else  in 
America,  only  those  who  have  an  inherent  longing  for 
improvement  get  any  real  help  in  the  molding  of  character. 
The  attitude  of  a  great  number  of  the  boys  of  the  working- 


classes  toward  public  order  and  the  rights  of  others  is 
revealed  in  the  disorders  so  frequently  witnessed  in  public 
conveyances,  when  they  are  abroad  for  games  ;  and  in  any 
large  city  a  daily  incident  of  the  streets  is  gangs  of  little 
rowdies,  each  with  stick  in  hand,  roving  for  the  amusement 
of  petty  pillage  and  damage  to  property.  As  they  operate 
at  a  distance  from  their  tenement  homes,  and  are  skilled  in 
flight,  they  suffer  no  real  hindrance.  In  a  sense  the  pranks 
of  children  and  the  unthinking  and  sportive  excesses  of 
youth  should  not  be  taken  too  seriously;  but  when  they  are 
associated  with  blindness  and  indifference  among  adults 
they  acquire  a  sinister  significance.  No  wonder  the  country 
is  suffering  from  lawlessness  when  both  the  poor  and  the 
rich  neglect  to  train  and  discipline  their  boys  ;  but  the  ills  of 
the  present  are  as  nothing  to  the  disorders  that  are  threat- 
ened, when  these  new  and  manifold  crops  of  hoodlums 
grow  to  man's  estate  and  conjoin  with  the  inevitable  pinch 
of  distress  and  the  opportunity  to  resent  some  public  meas- 
ure displeasing  to  popular  prejudice. 

On   a  weak   foundation  of  home  training  our  supposed 
educational  bulwark  against  lawlessness  rises  to  a  doubtful 
capstone  in  the  indifference  of  college  men.     Among  under- 
graduates the  mob  spirit  frequently  holds  sway,  and  is  often 
treated  with  leniency,  on  the  sentimental  principle  that  a 
college  ruffian  differs  from  other  varieties  of  wilful  disturb- 
ers of  the  peace.     As  a  ruffian  "  for  fun  "  he  is  the  least 
excusable  type  of  lawless  youth,  and  offers  an'example  of 
far-reaching  influence  on  public  morals.     College  authori- 
ties of  late  have  really  curbed  the  hazing  pastimes  of  under- 
graduates,   which    often   include    disgraceful    or   inhuman 
treatment  of  their  fellows;  but  the  cultivation  and  mainte- 
nance of  a  standard  of  personal  conduct  proper  to  young 
men  giving  their  time  to  the  higher  objects  of  civilization, 
is  either  neglected  or   is  largely  a   failure.     Here,  as   in 
every   other  American  line  of  moral   deficiency,  business 
reasons  may  be  found  at  the  base  of  the  motive  for  neglect 
of  discipline.     The  fact  is  that  a  considerable  part  of  the 

10 


students  at  college,  in  these  times,  have  no  reason  for  being 
there  beyond  ability  to  pay  the  bills,  and  a  fashion  for  the 
social  prestige  of  contact  with  gentlemen  engrossed  with 
intellectual  pursuits.  These  are  the  students  who  seek 
leadership  in  diversions  which  are  discreditable  to  college 
life,  and  lower  the  average  of  scholarship  to  an  unsatisfac- 
tory degree. 

And  where  does  the  alumnus  stand  in  the  ranks  of  law 
and  order  ?  In  large  part  among  the  inert  mass  of  comfort- 
able, easy-going  citizens,  including  many  who  live  by  pro- 
fessional  activity  and  prudently  keep  silence  on  questions 
which  involve  the  shortest  cut  to  wealth  and  influence. 
This  indifference  of  mature  college  men  to  the  dangerous 
tendencies  of  our  national  hfe  has  often  been  commented 
upon  by  leading  educators;  it  has  recently  been  demon- 
strated by  an  appeal  of  the  Extension  Committee  of  the 
Oberlin  Association  of  Illinois  for  expressions  of  opinion  on 
the  subject.  The  responses  were  half-hearted,  explanatory, 
and  in  confirmation  of  a  pervading  indifference.  From 
Harvard  came  an  opinion  much  to  the  point  of  the  whole 
question,  and  which  the  committee  summarized  in  three 
pregnant  sentences  : 

The  false  political  philosophy  which  pervades  and  per- 
meates American  society  is  the  reason  that  college  men  do 
not  get  into  action  against  lawlessness.  We  must  come 
back  to  the  disagreeable  fact  that  government  rests  on  force. 
We  shall  continue  to  live  in  a  fool's  paradise  so  long;  as  we 
shut  our  eyes  to  this  disagreeable  fact. 

And  yet  our  hope  of  conservative  action  is  largely  in 
college  men.  Wherever  they  are  met  together,  whether  as 
undergraduates  or  alumni,  they  will  do  well  to  consider 
their  power  and  their  responsibility  in  the  matter  of  public 
order  and  the  observance  of  law. 


II 


LAWLESSNESS  IN  THE  ASCENDANT 

IN  the  June  "  Topics,"  the  never-agreeable  subject  of 
lawlessness  was  discussed  in  its  aspect  as  "  the  national 
vice."  A  disregard  of  social  and  legal  restraint  was  traced 
in  the  activities  of  all  classes,  in  all  parts  of  the  country; 
and  particular  stress  was  laid  on  the  laxity  of  discipline 
with  regard  to  children,  which  helps  to  develop  wide- 
spread rowdyism  and  turbulence,  more  noticeable,  because 
less  excusable,  among  students  at  the  higher  institutions  of 
learning.  And  the  saddest  aspect  of  the  matter  was  as- 
cribed to  the  flippancy  of  the  sensational  press  in  dealing 
with  nearly  all  phases  of  the  subject  (if,  in  fact,  it  does  not 
actually  promote  them),  coupled  with  the  indifference  of 
the  educated  classes  to  the  numerous  causes  and  the 
obvious  and  gravely  disquieting  effects. 

All  reviews  of  human  conduct  are  made  in  a  frame  of 
mind  liable  to  be  captious;  a  variety  of  instances,   when 
grouped,  carries  a  force  which  often  appears  to  exaggerate  ; 
and  conclusions  drawn  from  a  wide  assemblage  of  acts  and 
motives  may  easily  be  challenged  as  too  sweeping.     Wc 
have,  however,  seen  no  criticism  of  our  statements,  and 
since  the  editorial  was  published,  at  the  end  of  May,  occur- 
rences, on  every  side,  have  by  contrast  reduced  some  of  its 
extreme  instances  to  commonplace.     A  line  of  discussion 
intended  to  be  guarded  was  never  more  thoroughly  justified 
by  the  fresh  testimony  of  current  events.   Setting  aside  as  of 
perennial  occurrence  the  startling  activities  oi  degenerates 
and  criminals,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the  outing  season  and 
commencement  month  furnish  the  press  with  an  unparalleled 
array  of  youthful  excesses  and  college  outrages.     In  one 
instance  a  college  president  was  said  to  have  been  ejected 
from  chapel.     Another  case  concerned  the  desecration  of 
a  graveyard.     Several  of  the  riotings  led  to  rebukes  of  the 
newspapers  by  faculty  members  for  describing  the  events 
in  the  usual  style  of  pleasurable  exaggeration.     Reporters 
will  ever  see  the  picturesque  side  of  lawlessness  as  carried 

12 


forward  by  persons  whose  bringing-up  and  occupation  lend 
to  their  excursions  into  criminality  the  humor  of  contrast 
and  hyperbole.  But  if  half  that  has  been  chronicled  is  true, 
the  teaching  faculties  of  the  country  might  better  drop  the 
arts  and  sciences  until  such  time  as  the  old-fashioned  stand- 
ards of  conduct  and  morals  are  at  least  understood  and 
treated  with  outward  respect.  The  feeling  is  growing  that 
"respectable"  lawlessness  is  chargeable  more  to  the  negli- 
gence of  parents  and  teachers  than  to  the  wilfulness  and 
exuberance  of  youth,  which  always  has  and  always  will  ex- 
periment with  its  environment  of  restraint.  Professor 
Ferrero,  with  the  limited  view  of  an  outside  observer,  finds, 
as  one  of  the  causes  of  American  social  disorder  '♦  the  chil- 
dren too  independent  of  parents." 

A  great  many  fair-minded  men  are  impatient  with  any 
argument  based  on  the  excesses  of  youth.     They  look  to 
see  merry  Prince  Hal  evolve  naturally  into  sturdy   King 
Henry.     The  simile  does  a  great  deal  of  harm  in  the  usual 
application.     While  it  is  a  hopeful  example  in  the  case  of  a 
handful  of  dissolute  princes,  it  becomes  an  excuse  for  neg- 
lect when  applied  to  half  a  million  commoners  being  edu- 
cated  for  fathers  and  mentors  of  the  next  generation.     No 
nation  can   continue  to  grow  strong  and  great  unless  its 
youth  is  reared  in  persevering  discipline  and  subordination. 
But  youthtul  misdemeanors  aside,  what  shall  we  say  of 
the  summer's  examples  of  social   disorder,  and   mob   vio- 
lence?    One  case  of  the  latter,  at  the  North  be  it  said,  was 
stupefying  for  the  matter-of-course  way  in  which  the  law 
was  defied,  though  the  attitude  and  subsequent  action  of 
the  Governor  were  all  that  could   be   desired.     And    the 
pitiful  prize-fight,  though  held  in  a  corner  of  the  last  rem- 
nant of  our  old-time  wilderness,  had  the  power,  neverthe- 
less, to  overshadow  for  the  whole  country  the  significance 
of  Independence  Day  !     It  furnished  an  object-lesson  of  the 
effect  of  interest  in  ''personal  prowess  "  as  a  stimulus  to 
violence. 


13 


Much  will  be  heard  of  the  general  subject  in  the  near 
future,  because  the  country  is  awakening  to  the  fact  that 
cultivation  of  respect  for  law,  and  the  will  to  enforce  order, 
should  be  the  first  principle  in  the  new  conservation  policy. 
As  a  response  to  our  appeal,  numerous  letters  have  been 
received  from  churchmen,  both  Protestant  and  Catholic, 
and  the  gravity  of  the  evil  is  being  urged  from  platform 
and  pulpit  in  all  quarters  of  the  country.  Governor  Hughes, 
who  never  addresses  any  meeting  of  his  fellow-citizens 
without  touching  on  some  vital  question  and  promoting 
some  public  interest,  in  his  recent  Harvard  address  referred 
to  certain  tendencies  of  the  lawless  spirit  among  the  edu- 
cated classes  as  needing  to  be  eradicated  in  the  work  of 
safeguarding  democracy  ''against  the  perils  of  its  success." 


BREAD  AND  BUTTER  AND  LAWLESSNESS 

EVERY  month  of  the  passing  year  has  brought  new 
testimony  to  the  spreading  inclination  to  lawlessness 
in  various  parts  of  the  United  States.  The  most  serious 
phase  is  lawlessness  actuated  by  the  bread  and-butter 
motive,  which  is  the  most  insidious  of  motives  on  account 
of  its  ready  appeal  to  popular  sympathy. 

The  feeling  has  been  prevalent  among  wage-earners  that 
the  source  of  a  man's  bread  and  butter  is  "sacred."  If,  in 
a  concerted  effort  to  force  an  increase  of  wages,  or  a 
decrease  of  hours,  they  cast  aside  their  jobs,  other  men  who 
may  happen  to  be  looking  for  a  chance  to  earn  their  bread 
and  butter  may  not  take  up  the  abandoned  work  without 
being  regarded  as  violators  of  a  peculiar  private  right, 
which,  in  practice,  subjects  them  to  capital  punishment  by 
"mob  justice." 

Extreme  examples  of  the  application  of  this  popular 
theory  have  been  prevalent  during  the  past  summer.  As 
an  individual  case,  the  mayor  of  New  York  was  shot  by  a 
city  watchman  who  had  been  discharged  by  the  head  of  a 
department    for  proved  incompetency.       The  loss  of  that 

14 


source  of  his  bread  and  butter  became  a  justification  for 
revenge  by  murder.  While  no  sympathy  has  been  out- 
wardly bestowed  on  the  assassin  (and  while  it  is  obvious 
that  an  individual  act  from  such  a  motive  might  easily  be 
due  to  mental  weakness),  so  far  as  his  asserted  motive  goes, 
the  would-be  slayer  of  Mayor  Gaynor  was  as  much  in  the 
right  as  those  strikers,  or  their  sympathizers,  who  took 
human  life  by  derailing  a  Delaware  and  Hudson  Railway 
train  as  a  warning  to  engineers  and  firemen  that  they  must 
not  help  others  to  pick  up  the  bread  and  butter  which  the 
strikers  had  cast  aside. 

Again,  the  mayor's  assassin  was  as  reasonable  as  the 
street-car  strikers  at  Columbus,  Ohio,  who  appear  to  have 
had  much  local  and  some  official  sympathy  in  their  attempt 
to  enforce  a  similar  claim  on  their  discarded  jobs.  The 
latter  case  has  presented  all  the  disquieting  features  of  a 
false  local  sentiment  fostered  by  weak  local  authority.  As 
we  write,  social  chaos  is  being  averted  only  by  the  action 
of  a  courageous  Governor  using  State  troops.  At  no  time 
in  the  existence  of  this  government  has  lawlessness  asserted 
itself  with  a  more  insidious  motive,  with  more  unbridled 
intent,  or  accompanied  by  more  official  indecision  and 
public  apathy.  / 

In  both  these  instances  of  riot  the  silence  of  the  promi- 
nent labor  leaders  has  been  of  startling  import.  The  way 
of  recovery  from  such  a  state  of  affairs  is  always  long  and 
strewn  with  hardship,  but  it  leads  sooner  or  later  back  to 
the  assertion  of  the  law,  as  being  the  only  "sacred"  element 
in  the  problem  of  human  society,  since  it  is  the  fundamental 
source  of  everybody's  bread  and  butter,  as  well  as  every- 
body's physical  safety. 

THE  PINCH  OF  EXTRAVAGANCE 

ONLY  when  the  shoe  pinches  does  the  average  man  rea- 
son efTectively  on  the  importance  of  proper  foot- wear. 
And  on  account  of  the  same  perverse  trait,  precept  and 
example  have  little  influence  on  prudent  expenditure  until 

15 


the  pocket-book  is  empty.  When  the  latter  is  vacant  of  all 
else  that  is  useful,  it  is  still  full  of  the  magic  of  reflection. 

For  the  majority  of  mankind  the  basic  principle  of  ex- 
penditure must  always  be  sought  in  the  simple  truth  that  "he 
alone  has  who  saves,"  coupled  with  the  equally  simple  rule 
*'not  to  spend  what  you  do  not  have."  As  a  people  un- 
usually favored  by  circumstances,  Americans  have  been 
prone  to  overlook  the  principle,  and  to  neglect  the  rule. 
For  two  hundred  years  they  have  filled  their  plates  from  the 
fatness  of  a  new  soil,  and  dipped  their  cups  in  the  seemingly 
inexhaustible  springs  of  nature.  On  every  side  have  mul- 
tiplied the  unmistakable  evidences  of  wealth  ;  but  under  the 
operation  of  a  law  of  economy  as  inexorable  as  the  law  of 
gravitation,  that  wealth  has  more  and  more  passed  into  the 
hands  of  the  few  who  have  mastered  the  science  of  accumu- 
lation. This  is  no  sign  of  unfairness ;  it  is  rather  proof  of 
the  existence  of  wide  spread  and  general  extravagance.  In 
no  other  country,  probably,  is  w^ealth  so  widely  distributed; 
but  that  fact  indicates  a  condition  favorable  to  the  concen- 
tration of  wealth  when  the  saving  or  holding- back  principle 
is  not  commonly  practiced.  When  the  forests  are  stripped 
from  the  mountains,  the  sponge  like  roots  and  undergrowth 
lose  their  power  to  hold  back  the  natural  rainfall,  which 
rushes  at  once  to  the  large  reservoirs  below,  dragging  along 
with  it  the  little  accumulations  at  the  sources,  and  also 
denuding  much  of  the  fertile  soil  on  the  way.  In  precise 
analogy,  such  are  the  eflfects  of  general  extravagance  on  the 
w^ages  and  incomes  of  a  people.  The  big  receptacles  of 
wealth  cannot  help  filling.  Thereafter  they  serve  a  useful 
purpose  in  supplying  power  to  the  myriad  \vheelsand  inner 
wheels  of  commerce  and  manufacture.  But  if  only  a  prudent 
part  of  the  little  incomes  was  also  reserved  at  the  top,  the 
lower  reservoirs  would  not  hold  so  much  waste,  and  little 
and  big  incomes  would  prosper  together. 

In  recent  years,  signs  have  multiplied  to  indicate  that 
the  American  era  of  natural  abundance  is  over.  Some  of 
the  notable  signs  are  the  enormous  growth  of  population, 

i6 


swelled  by  the  steadily  increasing  immigration ;  the  stupen- 
dous output  of  the  mines  ;  the  semi-exhaustion  of  a  large  part 
of  the  once  fertile  fields;  and,  more  than  all  else,  the  fortu- 
nate, though  belated,  call  to  national  conservation.  We  are 
now  entering  on  the  second  era  of  a  nation  planted  in  illu- 
sive abundance,  an  era  in  which  there  can  be  no  real  and 
lasting  progress  unless  Economy  is  taken  into  lull  partner- 
ship  with  the  present  firm  of  Intelligence  and  Industry, 

^  As  never  before,  the  country  is  now  concerning  itself 
with  the  cost  of  living.  For  the  first  time  it  is  perceived  to 
be  relatively  *'high,"  when,  in  fact,  as  judged  by  the  stan- 
dards of  all  European  countries,  it  has  always  been  extrav- 
agant. In  accounting  for  the  cause  of  the  suddenly  recog- 
nized dearness  of  the  necessaries  of  life,  much  is  being  made 
of  economic  changes,  such  as  the  increase  of  the  world's 
supply  of  gold,  and  very  little  is  said  of  the  relatively 
diminished  supply  of  labor— diminished  because  doubled  in 
value  for  the  amount  of  service  rendered. 

Labor  is  the  great  commodity  at  the  base  of  human 
society.  In  general  the  price  of  everything  else  must  go 
up  or  down  as  labor  rises  or  falls  in  cost  and  efficiency.  In 
no  other  country  are  the  rewards  and  indulgence  of  labor 
so  great  as  in  America.  The  causes  liave  been  partly 
economic  and  largely  political,  and  these  causes,  it  is  safe 
to  say,  will  not  change  their  relative  force  in  the  near 
future.  One  proof  that  labor  is  at  the  present  time  pecul- 
iarly a  favored  class  may  be  found  in  the  prosperity  of  the 
farmers,  for  agriculture  represents  labor  at  its  best,  as  the 
recipient  of  the  fruits  of  its  own  energy.  Other  elements 
enter  into  the  equation  of  success,  but  labor  in  farming 
profits  as  never  before.  This  is  a  fortunate  thing  and  will 
help  to  attract  labor  to  the  soil. 

The  prosperity  of  labor,  let  it  be  said  with  joy  and 
emphasis,  is  the  particular  tower  of  strength  to  a  nation. 
But  to  continue  long  as  a  favored  class  it  must  give  full 
measure  of  service,  and  adapt  itself  to  a  frugal  scale  of 
living,  so  as  to  be  able  to  put  by  something  in  all  but  times 

17 


of  great  stringency.  Under  present  influences,  labor  is 
saving  little  or  nothing,  and  its  leaders  cultivate  that  fact 
as  an  argument  for  more  favors.  The  vulgarity  of  Ameri- 
can extravagance  may  be  more  conspicuous  among  the 
newly  made  rich,  but  it  pervades  all  classes,  and  in  truth 
begins  at  the  bottom  and  expands  upward.  In  pleasures 
and  amusements,  including  travel  and  automobiles,  our 
people  spend  money,  as  though  to  be  diverted  from  the 
contemplation  of  one's  own  mental  resources  were  a  boon 
worth  the  expenditure  of  the  last  dollar — and,  now  that  we 
have  moving  pictures,  of  the  last  cent.  There  are  thou- 
sands whose  only  economy  is  in  the  cost  of  their  reading- 
matter. 

Years  of  over  expenditure,  with  increasing  costs  due  to 
imprudent  demands,  have  at  last  produced  a  pinch  which 
is  felt  by  nearly  every  class  of  workers.  Let  no  one  imag- 
ine that  this  strictly  American  pinch  is  the  pinch  of 
necessity.  It  is  only  the  pinch  of  extravagance,  due  to 
habits  of  luxury  and  expenditure  which  no  prosperity  ever 
yet  devised  by  human  ingenuity  and  industry  has  been  able 
to  sustain. 

MR.  ROOSEVELT  ON  STRIKES 


TT  would  be  a  captious  critic  of  Mr.  Roosevelt  who  could 
-■-  find  an}^  fault  with  his  downright  utterances  at  Colum- 
bus, Ohio,  in  denunciation  of  the  violence  which  attended 
the  strike  of  street-car  employees  in  that  city.  This  speech 
was  a  great,  a  timely,  and  a  lasting  public  service.  Ad- 
dressing all  classes  of  citizens,  he  told  the  strikers  and  their 
sympathizers  that  their  use  or  toleration  of  lawlessness 
could  not  be  endured,  and  showed  them,  moreover,  that  it 
was  against  their  own  best  interests.  He  denounced  the 
policemen  who  refused  to  obey  the  orders  of  the  mayor  in 
defense  of  life  and  property  as  lower  than  professional  law- 
breakers. He  pointed  out  the  folly  of  employers  who 
discriminated  against  members  of  a  labor-union  as  such, 

i8 


and  gave  counsel  of  order,  moderation  and  justice  to  all 
concerned.  It  was  a  large-minded,  far-sighted  view  which 
may  well  be  kept  before  every  working-man  and  employer 
as  a  reminder  of  their  rights  and  mutual  duties. 

It  is  easy  to  say  that  these  are  commonplaces  of  social 
order.  The  significance  of  the  speech  lies  in  the  fact  that 
Mr.  Roosevelt  has  placed  these  principles  correctly  before 
the  people  as  no  other  public  man  has  dared  or  cared  to 
since  Grover  Cleveland.  In  this  respect  he  has  felt  the 
grave  responsibility  imposed  upon  him  by  his  position  and 
influence.  The  labor  problem  is  m  its  present  sorry  con- 
dition because  the  leaders  of  public  opinion  in  office  and  in 
the  press,  overawed  by  the  working-man's  boast  of  numbers, 
either  have  shrunk  from  the  consideration  of  the  labor 
question,  or  have  treated  it  in  so  weak  a  manner  as  to  con- 
fuse the  public  mind  between  alleged  wrongs  of  working- 
men  in  a  given  contest  and  their  tacitly  asserted  right  to 
find  a  remedy  for  these  wrongs  in  violence.  But  the  chief 
responsibility  is  upon  the  leaders  of  the  labor-unions,  who, 
if  at  all,  have  not  suf^ficiently  discountenanced  lawlessness 
among  strikers.  Men  of  intelligence  like  John  Mitchell 
and  Samuel  Gompers  ought  to  see  that  the  interest  of  the 
working-men  demands  that  they  and  'their  associates  in 
leadership  should  systematically  be  preaching  to  their 
followers  exactly  what  Mr.  Roosevelt  has  so  plainly 
preached  in  Ohio.  If  at  the  breaking  out  of  every  great 
strike  they  would  visit  the  scene  and  throw  their  influence 
publicly  on  the  side  of  law  and  order,  they  would  obtain 
for  their  legitimate  aspirations  the  support  of  thousands. 
The  welfare  of  the  working-men  is  the  interest  of  the 
whole  country  and  they  have  and  will  have  all  the  sym- 
pathy to  which  they  show  themselves  entitled. 


19 


MAYOR  GAYNOR'S  APPEAL  AGAINST  THE 

YELLOW    PRESS 

IN  his  remarkable  letter  to  his  sister  concerning:  the 
attempt  upon  his  life,  Mayor  Gaynor  added  to  his  dis- 
tinguished public  services  in  non-partizan  activity  another 
of  supreme  value,  which  it  is  to  be  hoped  has  set  men  and 
women  thinking  as  never  before  on  the  subject  of  sensa- 
tional journalism.  There  are  prominent  and  well-meaning 
citizens  who  pooh-pooh  the  assertion  that  the  '^yellow" 
newspapers  are  both  a  direct  and  an  insidious  incitement  to 
disorder.  With  an  optimism  that  is  half-cowardice  and 
half-indolence,  they  go  on  supporting  these  organs  of  law- 
lessness,  if  not  by  advertising  with  them,  at  least  by  buying 
them  and  apologizing  for  them.  Through  their  vulgar 
pages  these  fathers  of  families  both  perceptibly  and  imper- 
ceptibly infect  their  sons  and  daughters  with  false  notions 
and  wrong  standards,  which,  till  one  gather  figs  of  thistles, 
cannot  fail  to  work  the  destruction  of  most  that  is  whole- 
some and  beautiful  in  life.  If  these  tainted  journalists 
undertake  any  public  work  of  value,  it  is  only  donning  the 
livery  of  heaven  to  serve  the  devil  in.  Hypocrites  and 
egotists  as  they  are,  they  turn  everything  to  their  own  gain 
and  glorification.  As  a  mere  matter  of  editorial  routine 
they  foment  class  hatred,  defame  character,  invent  lies, 
distort  the  truth,  spy  at  keyholes,  and  play  fast-and-loose 
with  ordinary  decencies.  They  demoralize  the  men  and 
women  of  their  staflfs  by  imposing  these  policies  upon  their 
self-respect,  and,  prating  of  liberty  and  honesty,  poison  the 
mental  food  that  bears  their  hideous  label. 

The  American  people,  in  one  respect,  seem  to  be  like 
children :  we  learn  chiefly  by  shock.  It  is  only  when  some 
cataclysm  of  violence  rouses  our  dormant  imagination  that 
we  consider  whither  we  are  being  driven  by  the  license 
of  the  press.  The  weak-minded  assassins  of  Garfield  and 
McKinley  were  impelled  to  their  deeds  by  what  they  read 
in   sensational  papers ;  and    the    purpose   of    the  assailant 

20 


of  Mr.  Gaynor  was  probably  accelerated  by  the  violent 
and  brutal  attacks  upon  the  mayor  by  a  yellow  journal. 
How  many  more  of  the  people's  representatives  in  high 
places  must  be  sacrificed  to  false  ideas  of  the  liberty  of  the 
press  ! 

Mayor  Gaynor's  service  goes  further  than  mere  denun- 
ciation of  this  state  of  affairs.  He  believes  that  something 
practical  can  be  done  to  abolish  it.     He  says: 

Such  journalism  is,  of  course,  in  absolute  defiance  of  the 
criminal  law,  and  it  did  enter  my  mind  to  publicly  call  on 
the  grand  juries  and  the  district  attorney  to  protect  me  from 
it,  but  I  was  weak  and  feared  people  would  say  I  was  thin- 
skinned.  But  the  time  is  at  hand  when  these  journalistic 
scoundrels  have  got  to  stop  or  get  out,  and  I  am  ready  now 
to  do  my  share  to  that  end.  They  are  absolutely  without 
souls.  If  decent  people  would  refuse  to  look  at  such  news- 
papers the  thing  would  right  itself  at  once.  The  journalism 
of  New  York  City  has  been  dragged  to  the  lowest  depth  of 
degradation.  The  grossest  raileries  and  libels,  instead  of 
honest  statements  and  fair  discussion,  have  gone  on  un- 
checked. One  cannot  help  sympathizing  with  the  decent 
newspapers. 

It  is  devoutly  to  be  hoped  that  a  remedy  at  law  may  yet 
be  found  for  this  crying  evil  and  national  disgrace,  a  way 
of  reaching  the  **  accessories  before  the  fact."  If  not,  the 
appeal  to  decent  people  may  be  made  more  effective,  if 
respectable  editors,  who  have  at  heart  the  honor  and  wel- 
fare of  their  profession,  would  see  their  duty  in  disavowing 
and  disfellowing  the  editors  who  have  dragged  it  in  the 
mire.  If  something  is  not  soon  accomplished,  we  are  likely 
to  have  a  League  for  Curbing  the  License  of  the  Press. 
Meantime,  here  is  a  field  for  the  quiet  activity  of  the  intel- 
ligent and  modest  women  of  the  country. 

The  evil  is  not  confined  to  New  York ;  it  is  found  in 
other  cities  from  Boston  to  San  Francisco.  Its  cleverness 
blinds  many  an  editor  to  its  infamy.  It  is  a  disease  of  the 
time  and  touches  all  classes,  and  all  are  interested  in  its 
cure.     It  is  of  long  and  insidious  growth,  and  it  will  take  a 


21 


longtime  to  overcome  it.     The  mayor  says,  "I  am  ready 
now  to  do  my  share."     Are  we  ? 


LAWLESSNESS  AND  LABOR  LEADERSHIP 

LABOR  riots  with  loss  of  life  and  destruction  of  prop- 
erty in  the  capital  of  imperial,  army-ruled  Germany, 
and  state-wide  strikes  with  the  usual  accompaniment  of  out- 
rages and  dynamite  throughout  republican  France,  are  the 
most  recent  signs  that  wholesale  lawlessness  in  connection 
with  the  coercive  methods  of  organized  labor  are  not  due 
to  national  peculiarities  or  political  forms.  They  are  some- 
how interwoven  with  common  human  passions  and  motives, 
and  for  this  reason,  if  we  are  ever  to  have  disputes  between 
employers  and  organized  labor  without  lawlessness,  it  will 
be  due  to  the  unremitting  efforts  of  labor-leaders  toward 
peaceful  methods.  Until  their  followers  have  been 
educated  to  believe  that  labor-union  success  with  lawless- 
ness can  never  be  permanent,  and  until  labor-union  men 
are  raised  to  a  state  of  discipline  which  yields  obedience  to 
such  wise  leadership,  all  seeming  improvement  will  be  illu- 
sory. Labor-union  success  after  violence  is  only  a  truce 
which  lays  another  burden  of  fear  and  cost  upon  the  future. 

The  Los  Angeles  outrage,  of  diabolical  cruelty  and 
frightful  menace  for  the  future,  preceded  the  foreign 
events  referred  to  by  only  a  few  days.  Resistance  to  the 
demands  of  organized  labor  grew  into  a  contest  by  means 
of  boycott,  and  by  organized  counter-efforts  to  exist  with 
non-union  labor.  The  leading  support  of  the  latter  party 
was  General  Harrison  Gray  Otis  and  his  newspaper,  and, 
wherever  the  immediate  responsibility  may  be  found  to  lie, 
it  is  indisputable  that  it  was  this  action  on  his  part  that 
caused  the  miscreants  to  blow  up  with  dynamite  the  offices 
and  employees  of  his  newspaper.  A  score  of  dead  men, 
and  the  ruins  of  valuable  property  lend  emphasis  to  argu- 
ment, but  are  not  conclusive. 

We  sympathize  with  General  Otis  and  the  maimed  and 

22 


the  families  of  the  slain  because  in  a  civilized  community 
they  have  been  cruelly  despoiled  by  barbarous  methods. 
And  also  we  sympathize  with  the  labor-union  leaders  of 
California  because  some  of  them  will  be  held  morally 
responsible,  when  it  is  inconceivable  that  they  could  have 
instigated  or  encouraged  acts  so  dastardly  and  so  detri- 
mental to  the  cause  of  organized  labor.  Some  of  them 
have  offered  large  rewards  for  the  apprehension  of  the 
criminals,  and  others  have  denounced  the  outrage  in  terms 
not  to  be  excelled.  Both  methods  of  showing  abhorrence 
are  laudable,  but  they  do  not  reach  the  source  of  all  the 
trouble,  which  is  the  state  of  mind,  or  sentiment,  cultivated 
by  the  attitude  of  organized  labor  toward  laboring  men 
not  of  their  way  of  thinking,  and  toward  employers  who 
successfully  resist  their  demands. 

It  is  that  state  of  mmd  which  incites  fanatics  and 
sympathizers  to  do  the  acts  which  injure  the  cause  of  labor, 
because  they  seem  to  be  done  to  further  objects  sought  by 
labor-unions.  The  folly  and  irresponsibility  of  these  acts 
cultivate  a  growing  conviction  on  the  part  of  the  general 
public  that  strikes  and  lawlessness  are  inseparable.  Only 
the  leaders  ot  labor  have  the  influence  to  produce  a  peace- 
ful attitude  in  times  of  trial,  and  if  they  are  evading  their 
duty  as  impracticable  or  as  beyond  their  power,  then  a  crisis 
is  impending  which  will  try  the  strength  of  the  nation  ;  for 
every  day's  budget  of  events  confirms  the  truth  that  law- 
lessness of  all  kinds  is  on  the  increase,  from  the  frivolous 
excesses  of  those  who  are  amused  by  unruliness,  to  the 
atrocities  of  those  who  look  for  class  advantage  by  methods 
which  destroy  and  kill. 

In  1858,  Abraham  Lincoln  said,  **  A  house  divided 
asrainst  itself  cannot  stand.  I  believe  this  Government 
cannot  endure  permanently  half  slave  and  half  free." 
Events  proved  that  he  was  right.  Now,  after  the  lapse  of 
half  a  century,  another  labor  crisis  is  brewing,  and  the 
immediate  question  is  not  whether  our  civilization  can 
endure    with    labor   half  union   and    half    non-union,    but 


23 


whether  union  labor  will  permit  it  to  endure  on  that  basis. 
The  alternative  is  something  very  much  like  war,  now  in 
the  guerilla  stage,  that  inevitably  will  advance  to  the 
usual  conclusion  of  blood  and  ashes.  The  choice  lies  with 
the  leaders  of  labor.  Their  greatest  obstacles  in  the  exer- 
cise of  sound  judgment  will  prove  to  be  the  cowardice  of 
politicians  and  the  indecision  of  the  officers  of  the  law. 

LAWLESSNESS     AND     THE     TRAINING 

OF  THE  YOUNG 

APROPOS  OF  THE  BOY  SCOUTS  OF  AMERICA 

WHILE  lawlessness,  joined  with  the  periodical  strike, 
pursues  its  brisk  career,  nurtured  by  thoughtless 
sympathy  and  delicate  regard  for  ''  the  sacred  rights  of 
man,"— as  belonging  to  the  few,  while  they  are  engaged  in 
violating  the  rights  of  the  many,— it  will  help  to  an  under- 
standing of  the  human  error  in  these  outbreaks  to  reflect 
that  nine-tenths  of  such  lawlessness  is  committed  by  persons 
between  the  ages  of  eighteen  and  twenty-five. 

Youth  is  always  eager  for  excitement  and  careless  of 
the  source;  in  its  vigor  and  daring  it  is  always  willing  to 
serve  older  and  more  cautious  heads  who  have  purposes 
that  need  reckless  hands  to  realize  them.  And  what  pur- 
pose could  be  more  ingratiating  to  youth  than  the  promise 
of  more  wages  in  return  for  unquestioning,  and,  if  neces- 
sary, turbulent  loyalty  to  a  special  cause? 

Veiled  in  phrases  of  association  and  betterment,  such  a 
purpose  appears  to  be  peaceful  and  unselfish  ;  but  when  that 
purpose  meets  an  obstacle  in  somebody  else's  purpose, 
when  the  cherished  purpose  can  be  immediately  furthered 
only  by  violence,  the  necessary  physical  force  is  usually 
applied  with  youth's  heedless  disregard  of  the  remoter 
consequences.  For  youth  does  not  readily  perceive  that 
the  larger  opportunity  offered  by  law  and  order,  and  the 
larger  freedom  derived  from  devotion  to  country,  are  both 
weakened  by  any  measure  of   private  success  gained   by 

24 


lawless  methods.  But  fine  distinctions  and  remote  benefits 
count  for  nothing.  In  these  matters  the  germ  of  reason 
and  the  habit  of  subordination  must  be  implanted  by  early 
training. 

And,  happily,  youth  is  even  more  susceptible  to  the 
agreeable  good  suggestion  than  to  the  insinuating  evil  one, 
if  only  the  good  suggestion  is  ofTered  before  habits  of 
insubordination  have  been  acquired  ;  before  a  ''team  "  or  a 
"  gang  "  or  an  '*  association  of  drivers  and  helpers  "  is  able  to 
say  to  youth  :  "You  are  one  of  us.  Our  jleasure  or  interest 
requires  that  we  should  disturb  the  public  peace,  or  that 
we  should  show  our  physical  prowess,  or  that  the  heads  of 
'scabs'  should  be  broken.  It  is  disloyal  to  desert  your 
associates  when  the  home-going  fun  is  furious,  or  when  the 
gang  contest  is  dangerous,  or  when  the  cause  of  wages  is 
imperiled  by  interlopers,  hungry  for  the  jobs  of  others  ;  and 
anyhow,  if  you  are  disloyal  to  us  now,  j'our  head  will  be 
the  next  that  is  broken." 

According  to  an  unwritten  rule  of  all  fraternities  which 
on  occasion  find  it  opportune  to  employ  some  sort  of  force 
not  sanctioned  by  law,  ''disloyalty"  to  them  is  a  crime, 
while  disloyalty  to  law  and  order  is  only,  at  the  worst,  a 
misdemeanor  justified  by  necessity. 

Youth  is  more  responsive  to  the  id^a  of  loyalty  than  to 
any  other  human  sentiment,  because  youth  is  social  and 
susceptible  ;  but  the  things  it  will  be  loyal  to  are  a  matter 
of  training.  If  youth  is  not  taught  that  family  and  country 
are  the  highest  objects  of  loyalty,  it  will  be  in  danger  of 
devoting  loyalty  to  objects  inimical  to  family  and  country. 
Lack  of  proper  training  in  this  elemental  principle  is  a 
crying  fault  of  the  time,  and  it  is  a  lack  which  accounts 
largely  for  the  widespread  growth  of  sportive,  wilful,  and 
associative  lawlessness. 

It  is  only  necessary  to  affirm  that  old-fashioned  standards 
of  youthful  subordination  to  parental  authority  have  mostly 
disappeared  from  American  life  ;  the  facts  leave  no  room 
for  argument.     If   it   were   possible  to  repair  the  shaken 

25 


family  authority  (for  such  training  must  proceed  from  firm 
and  orderly  minded  parents)  it  could  be  done  only  after 
long,  persistent  and  general  effort.  A  higher  average  of 
intention  to  guide  is  probably  maintained  in  the  families  of 
artisans  than  among  the  very  well-to-do,  because  such 
parents  know  from  environment  that  disorderly  steps  verge 
on  ruin.  But  what  shall  be  said  of  the  poor  who  have  not 
enough  of  anything  but  children,  and  are  too  busy  with 
the  bread-and-butter  problem  to  give  much  attention  to 
training !  In  the  great  cities  the  little  boys  of  the  crowded 
districts  are  impelled  to  association  and  action  by  the 
primal  needs  of  human  development,  and  in  their  case  the 
absence  of  direction  and  training  is  a  peril  both  to  them 
and  to  the  nation. 

But  a  means  has  been  found  to  repair  in  part  the  lack  of 
home-training  for  youth  in  ''  The  Boy  Scouts  of  America." 
This  is  a  movement  which  is  applicable  to  boys  of  all 
classes,  which  appeals  to  every  natural  youthful  impulse, 
which  brings  every  faculty  into  healthful  action,  and  which, 
at^the  same  time,  enforces  the  principle  that  subordination 
is  a  real  happiness  in  human  association.  It  teaches  also 
that  loyalty  belongs  first  to  country,  and  that  country  is 
only  a  general  name  for  law  and  order. 

This,  the  most  promising  association  of  our  time,  is  an 
outgrowth  of  the  ''  Woodcraft  Indians"  which  Mr.  Ernest 
Thompson  Seton,  in  a  happy  hour,  set  on  foot  to  interest 
and  instruct  the  youth  of  America.  General  Baden-Powell 
had  the  fine  idea  to  extend  the  purpose  of  such  a  youthful 
association  in  giving  to  ''The  Boy  Scouts"  of  England  a 
broader  training  with  a  patriotic  motive  ;  whereupon  Mr. 
Seton,  with  a  practicability  as  ideal  as  it  is  brilliant,  has 
grafted  the  English  extension  to  the  parent  stem,  and 
evolved  a  growth  agreeable  to  every  youthful  taste  and 
status,  capable  of  the  widest  expansion,  and  destined  to 
bear  fruit  of  enormous  benefit  to  the  nation. 


26 


MANNERS  AND  THE  IMMIGRANT 

I^^E  have  recently  written  in  these  columns  of  the  regret- 
▼  ▼  tably  passive  attitude  toward  the  subject  of  manners 
on  the  part  of  many  well-bred  Americans,  resulting,  as  it 
does,  in  agreat  impairment  of  the  function  which  good  breed- 
ing should  have  in  civilization.  A  weak  indifference  to  the 
invasion  of  the  peace  and  happiness  of  society  by  the  vul- 
gar, selfish,  or  untrained  is  not  a  small  or  negligible  matter. 
There  is,  however,  another  point  of  view  from  which  the 
daily  intercourse  of  the  world  becomes  of  even  larger  mo- 
ment :  the  effect  that  our  attitude  toward  such  behavior  may 
have  upon  immigrants  in  their  relation  to  our  political 
standards. 

At  the  Gate  of  the  New  World  what  is  the  first  lesson 
the  immigrants  learn  ?  Is  it  the  fundamental  one  of  respect 
for  the  larger  rights  of  others,  of  which  we  boast?  Is  it 
not  rather  one  of  disrespect  for  the  minor  rights  of  courtesy 
and  politeness?  Do  not  false  notions  of  equality  very  soon 
rob  their  respectful  demeanor  and  speech  of  its  bloom? 
This  being  the  case,  how  can  we  expect  them  to  discrimi- 
nate in  the  scope  of  their  indifference  between  minor  and 
major  rights? 

The  societies  that  are  bravely  antt  devotedly  at  work 
among  the  immigrant  class,  in  their  endeavor  to  bring  it  into 
consonance  with  the  best  American  standards,  may  well 
consider  the  value  to  their  work  of  beginning  with  the  teach- 
ing, or  the  conserving,  of  simple  good  manners.  An  Italian 
from  the  Basilicata  may  know  little— and  may  be  qualified 
to  learn  little  more— of  the  American  system  of  government, 
but  he  knows  instinctively  the  part  that  manners  play  in 
life,  and  usually  on  arriving  affords  a  better  example  of  re- 
spect  for  others  than  his  American  neighbor.  To  establish 
respectful  intercourse  among  all— respect  toward  the 
humble  as  well  as  from  the  humble— is  to  take  the  first  im- 
portant step  toward  making  the  immigrant  a  valuable 
American  citizen. 


27 


ARE  WE  ASHAMED  OF  GOOD  MANNERS? 


IN  his  **  sermon"  in  the  Salt  Lake  Tabernacle  in  Septem- 
ber last,  President  Taft  touched  upon  a  subject  of  current 
and  growing  importance  in  these  suggestive  words : 

We  Anglo-Saxons  are,  we  admit,  a  great  race.  We 
have  accomplished  wonders  in  hammering  out,  against  odds 
that  seemed  insurmountable,  the  principles  of  civil  liberty 
and  popular  government,  and  making  them  practical  and 
showing  to  the  world  their  benefits.  But  in  so  doing  and 
in  the  course  of  our  life,  it  seems  to  me  we  have  ignored 
some  things  that  our  fellowsof  southern  climes  have  studied 
and  made  much  of,  and  that  is  the  forms  of  speech  and  the 
methods  of  ever-day  treatment  between  themselves  and 
others.  At  first  that  seems  superficial  to  us,  who  prefer 
*' no"  and  "yes"  and  abrupt  methods  and  communication 
in  the  shortest  and  curtest  sentences,  but  we  have  much  to 
learn  from  people  of  that  kind  of  courtesy  and  politeness. 

All  this  is  true,  and  yet  there  is  probably  no  kinder 
people  in  the  world  than  ours.  That  the  lack  of  the  graces 
of  courtesy  is  consistent  with  entire  good-will  is  instanced 
by  the  (doubtless  unusual)  experience  of  an  American  who 
lately  made  a  considerable  journey  in  this  country,  and  after 
his  return  declared  that  on  his  railway  travels  he  had  not 
met  with  an  unkind  or  impolite  action,  or,  on  the  other  hand, 
with  a  single  distinguished  courtesy. 

The  rest  of  the  country  must  speak  for  itself,  but  here 
in  this  rushing  city  of  New  York  the  deterioration  ot  what 
may  be  called  public  manners  has  become  so  marked  as  no 
longer  to  excite  attention  ;  and  while  'u\  certain  circles  there 
is  vigorous  insistence  upon  the  finesse  of  good  breeding,  is 
there  not  also  noticeable,  in  general,  a  less  careful  attention 
to  manners  within  doors?  ll  we  are  to  trust  the  report  of 
returning  travellers,  the  Zeitgeist,  if  in  less  degree,  is  simi- 
larly affecting  some  countries  of  Europe. 

In  trying  to  arrive  at  the  causes  of  this,  a  social  phil- 
osopher might  find  much  food  lor  reflection.  The  '*  manners 
of  the  road  "  are  but  a  small  part  of  that  "  conduct"  which 

28 


Matthew  Arnold  regarded  as  "  three-fourths  of  life."  The 
social  elevation  of  uncultivated  persons  who  have  **  broken 
into  society  "  by  the  aid  of  sudden  accumulations  of  wealth 
has  done  much  to  confirm  the  saying  that  it  takes  three 
generations  to  make  a  gentleman,— as  no  doubt,  it  takes 
three  generations  to  unmake  one.  Another  contributing 
cause  is  found  in  the  phenomenal  increase  in  immigration; 
but  it  is  to  be  doubted  whether  in  this  contact  Americans 
or  foreigners  suffer  the  more.  Standing  as  we  do  in 
New  York  at  the  gateway  of  the  New  World,  it  is  inter- 
esting to  see  how  quickly  the  gentle  and  respectful 
manners  of  certain  foreigners  are  abandoned  before  the 
dictum,  **  I  am  as  good  as  you  are,"  in  the  narrow  interpre- 
tation of  that  fatuous  doctrine.  "  Friendship  requires  leis- 
ure," says  Emerson,  and  certainly  manners  are  not  less 
exacting  in  that  respect,  and  in  the  face  of  the  necessities 
of  haste,  the  amenities  give  way.  That  such  general 
deterioration  is  noticeable  is  not  affected  by  the  agreeable 
exceptions  which  one  encounters  in  shops,  in  restaurants 
or  in  the  course  of  city  transportation. 

Whatever  may  be  the  causes,  a  more  important  point  of 
inquiry  relates  to  the  effect  upon  the  civilized  classes  them- 
selves—those  who  have  in  their  keeping  the  traditions  of 
American  manners  which  we  inherit,  and  which  at  their 
best  are  not  excelled  elsewhere.  Wlrat  is  the  attitude,  for 
instance,  not  of  those  who  serve,  but  of  those  who  are 
served,  in  the  point  of  self-respect?  There  can  be  no 
manners  without  a  standard  of  tacit  agreement  in  society 
concerning  them,  and  this  standard  amounts  to  a  dead 
letter  unless  it  is  enforced  and  insisted  upon  to  a  greater 
degree  than  is  now  done.  The  treatment  from  private  and 
public  servants  and  from  children  to  which  gentlemen  and 
ladies  submit  without  protest  indicates  that  as  an  active 
principle  of  fsociety  manners  have  lost  force.  The  fact 
seems  to  be  that  a  good  many  Americans  who  have  good 
manners  act  as  though  they  were  heartily  ashamed  of  it 
and  hope  that  their  children  will  not  find  it  out. 


29 


The  President  touched  lightly  but  accurately  upon  one 
defect  of  our  intercourse  :  its  bluntness.  No  inflection  of 
courtesy  can  supply  to  the  bald  ''no"  and  "yes''  the 
possibilities  of  respect  which  attend  the  use  of  "sir"  and 
"  madam  ;"  and  when  the  conversation  is  with  an  employer, 
a  lady,  an  elderly  person,  or  a  dignitary,  the  occasional 
mention  of  the  name  gives  a  proper  deference  and  a 
dignity  which,  without  sacrifice  or  servility,  establish  a 
basis  of  mutual  respect. 

By  indifference  to  the  impoliteness  of  servants,  employ- 
ers make  life  more  difficult  for  themselves  and  for  society- 
just  as  mothers  do  who  fail  to  exact  prompt  and  implicit 
obedience  from  their  children.  Recently  in  a  certain  club 
a  call-boy,  sent  to  find  a  member,  rushed  into  the  smoking- 
room  with  a  repeated  and  strident  summons  of  "Jones!" 
whereupon  a  gent'eman  drew  him  aside  and  softly 
prompted  him  with  ''Mr.  Jones,  if  you  please."  This 
action  was  a  service  not  only  to  the  boy,  but  to  every 
member  of  the  club.  But  how  many  "  house  committees  " 
consider  these  or  a  score  of  such  delinquencies  worth  dis- 
cipline? And  where  is  the  multitude  of  servants  to  learn 
their  trade,  if  no  one  exacts  of  them  respect? 

In  the  true  sense  of  the  word  there  can  be  no  society 
without  deference,  and  the  quality  of  the  society  is  indi- 
cated by  the  proper  direction  and  gradation  of  this  defer- 
ence, which,  it  must  be  observed,  is  the  principle  not  only 
of  society— and  as  becoming  in  the  rich,  accomplished  and 
prominent  as  in  any  others— but  is  also  the  fundamental 
principle  of  political  liberty  and,  indeed,  of  Christianity 
itself.  As  the  President  suggests,  in  the  struggle  for 
equality  we  have  given  up  much  that  is  valuable  in  that 
well-poised  ceremony  and  formality  without  which  life 
becomes  a  sickening  struggle  for  the  front  row  or  the  best 
place,  to  the  exclusion  of   the  elements   of  intellectuality 

and  repose. 

Many  others  besides  Mr.  Henry  James  have  remarked 
upon  the  absurd   position    held   in   American   society    by 

30 


young  women.  The  ruinous  indulgence  of  children  ought 
at  least  to  be  confined  to  the  home  circle,  and  not  be 
carried  into  a  world  where  age,  intelligence  and  experience 
should  have  precedence  and  should  form  the  standards. 
The  reversal  of  values,  so  as  to  make  the  debutante  the 
point  of  interest  in  a  social  season  instead  of  the  accom- 
plished matron,  is  as  though  society  should  have  foresworn 
its  functions.  This  would  be  true  even  were  the  manners 
of  the  debutante  all  that  they  should  be  in  deference, 
suavity  and  tact.  The  experience  of  Washington,  where 
society  is  fairly  representative,  goes  to  show  that  much  is 
still  to  be  desired  in  these  respects  in  the  general  education 
of  American  girls. 

The  women's  clubs  might  well  take  up  the  considera- 
tion of  this  subject.  The  attitude  of  boys  and  girls  toward 
their  elders  and  toward  each  other  is  largely  in  the  hands 
of  mothers,  though,  to  be  sure,  extraneous  influences  may 
thwart  the  best  ideals  of  home  breeding.  The  general 
inculcation  of  mutual  respect  by  means  of  simple  cere- 
monies of  deference  would  lay  the  foundation  of  a  better 
social  order,  and  go  far  to  reduce  the  familiarities  incident 
to  the  otherwise  admirable  freedom  of  the  sexes  in  sports 
and  common  education.  The  high-bred  American  girl  has 
her  own  distinction  among  the  women  of  the  world,  and 
the  mothers  of  the  present  day  ought^aot  to  be  satisfied  in 
the  matter  of  social  discipline  with  anything  less  than  the 
best. 


31 


